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Halfway through…..

I am back in Egham. It is a rather different Egham to the one I am used to, hardly bustling with students! However, it is providing me the perfect opportunity to get down to my work.

A week has passed already since the beginning of my placement with StreetInvest, which unfortunately means that only one week remains! Despite being full of trepidation last Sunday prior to its onset, ardent about completing the tasks with the utmost care and maturity, the uneasiness that was felt diminished as soon as I entered the door. It has been a busy week that has allowed me to engross further in the organisation, but also into my dissertation, which is constantly developing everyday.

I have realised over the last week just how committed StreetInvest is to real change in the life of street-connected children, an ambassador for ensuring that every child has a loving and caring relationship within their life. It is not necessarily about supplying food, shelter and clothing, street-connected children will, given their resolute character, find such items if they need to. It is about the human resource, a street worker, which they can turn to for guidance and help.

During my first week, my main task, working alongside fellow RHUL placement-linked dissertation volunteer Eleanor, has been to work towards creating profiles of StreetInvest’s key projects and partners for use in leaflets and for the Annual Report. In particular we have been working on the profiles for the Democratic Republic of Congo projects and the Sierra Leone projects. This activity has allowed me to understand further the type of operations StreetInvest conduct on the ground, and the difference such projects make.

One of my absolute highlights of the first week would have to have been the invitation by CEO Duncan Ross to join members of the team, volunteers and trustees at StreetInvest to partake in StreetInvest’s ‘Messaging Discussion’ with Toby Hartwell of Forward Thinking, created to help lead StreetInvest towards thinking about their core objectives and to maximise their ‘Elevator Pitch’. To be allowed to participate alongside those with a wealth of experience within the field is something I am extremely thankful for, as it allowed me to fully understand the stimulus for the creation of StreetInvest just over seven years ago, and to engage further in the difficulties that many charities and NGOs currently face.

My dissertation

Alongside the placement work, I’ve conducted my first interview for my dissertation! I interviewed Duncan Dyason from Street Kids Direct on Wednesday, and learnt more about his mentoring programme, which is coming to form a core part of his work in Guatemala, Honduras and the UK. To find out more information about the fantastic work he undertakes, please do visit his website: http://streetkidsdirect.org.uk/

So on Monday the final week with StreetInvest commences, let’s see how this last week unravels!